Prudhoe conman wrote £30,000 of bouncy cheques

CAR wash conman Stephen Lyall made thousands by setting up a bogus business on the back of a £1 bank account.

CAR wash conman Stephen Lyall made thousands by setting up a bogus business on the back of a £1 bank account.

Lyall fleeced a long list of businesses by writing cheques for more than £30,000 despite the measly amount of money sitting in his new business account.

The fraudster claimed to be setting up Nobles Jet Wash and Valet but just 24 hours after opening the Santander account he was writing bouncy cheques.

He rented two premises in North Shields, one of which he stripped bare of fixtures and fittings, causing £20,000 of damage.

Lyall got a £6,000 CCTV and alarm system installed at the other property – then stole it before the security firm came round to complain the cheque for it had bounced.

He went on to order vending machines worth more than £16,000, hired a petrol strimmer and harness for £2,739, ordered uniforms worth £855, and stationery and office goods worth more than £4,000.

Now Lyall has been jailed for 18 months at Newcastle Crown Court after he admitted a series of fraud charges.

The court heard Lyall set up the bank account with a £1 deposit, telling Santander he expected his new business venture to turn over £35,000 a year.

Prosecutor James Adkin said: “The defendant was issued with a cheque book which he started to use despite having no funds. The opening of the account was the first step in a series of frauds under the auspices of a legitimate business.

“There was never going to be a legitimate business, it was a fraud.”

On the same day as opening the account, Lyall met an agent from Regeneration North East and arranged to rent a property on Lawson Street, North Shields. He wrote a cheque for £500, which bounced.

Lyall then asked the agent about renting the Northumbrian Crab building, in North Shields. After getting the keys, he and others left it “beyond economic repair” by ransacking it, causing £20,000 of damage.

Meanwhile he got Chubb Security to fit a CCTV system and alarm at the Lawson Street address. The cheque again bounced and when someone from the company returned the premises were closed and empty and the £6,148 security system was gone.

Lyall went on to order vending machines worth £16,000, which were delivered to the Northumbrian Crab building. The cheques bounced and when the company chased Lyall up, they found the premises empty.

He also hired a jet washer from Lord Hire but when the firm tried to recover it there was no one in. The fraudster also hired a petrol strimmer and harness and a cheque for £2,739 bounced.

He spend £2,150 on office equipment and stationery, plus a further similar order of £2,148. Again the cheque was not honoured. The court he also spent £855 he did not have on uniforms for the bogus business.

By the time he was arrested he had obtained goods worth around £32,000 and caused a further £20,000 of damage. The 34-year-old, of North View Terrace, Prudhoe, pleaded guilty to participating in a fraudulent business, seven fraud offences and stripping out a building where materials are removed.

After Judge David Wood jailed him for 18 months, Susan Hirst, defending, said: “He set up the business intending it to be genuine but accepts it became dishonest.

“The fact is he had wholly unrealistic ideas about running a business and became out of his depth and turned to the easiest route, which was the dishonest route.”

Send a story

Advertising Department

Print

The Chronicle is read by more adults than any other regional newspaper on sale in the area. With 170,115 average issue readers, this reach extends to 366,753 weekly readers – that’s over 1/4 of adults in the area!

The average time spent reading the Chronicle is 31 minutes; which shows the length of time that readers are engaging with the editorial and advertising content.

49,199* copies of the Chronicle are sold on average each day as it continues to be an integral part of the region.

*ABC Newcastle Chronicle 100% paid, Mon - Sat, JICREG, 1/10/2012

Online

Unique Users: 1.6m

Page Views: 10m

Audience figures from Omniture, monthly average (Jan - Jun 2014).

More than 1 in 3 ChronicleLive users have clicked through to an online advertisement, demonstrating that our users are responsive and receptive to Internet advertising messages.

ChronicleLive reaches an internet-savvy audience, with 84% of users having purchased products or services online in the past 12 months.

Download our rate cards for all the prices of our print and digital products.